No Choice
by asearcher
Summary: Why did Sam leap when he did? A consideration of that concept.


Disclaimer: I own nothing. I thank the creators and owners of these characters for allowing me to write fan fiction for my own and others enjoyment.

The final part of this story has dialogue directly from the pilot "Genesis." The fact that it is written into this story is simply to provide the connection with the show and in no way is indicative of utilizing the words as my own.

**No Choice**

The phone call he'd received tonight was bothering him greatly. He'd tried to call Al several times. He knew Al had gone to the Nature Conservancy fundraiser and would be back close to midnight. He figured that his partner had turned off his cell phone so that it wouldn't disturb anyone at the dinner. Damn! Damn! Damn! He really wished Al was around right now.

The Contracting Officer had made it so clear. If he couldn't prove his theories and quick, the project would be cancelled. Too much money spent with little or no progress from the point of view of the government. They felt that the money could be spent better elsewhere. Certainly not to continue supporting this cockamamie idea of observation in time.

Sam had been alternatively sitting and pacing since the call. He'd gone back over his equations. Three times he'd run them through from start to finish. It all checked out. Well, it all checked out except the retrieval program. There were some areas he wasn't sure about on that program but it was close. So close. He absolutely knew he was right about the basic concept. He knew he'd be able to travel in his own lifetime. He'd be able to observe history exactly as it took place. There was no doubt in his mind. He'd poured a glass of scotch after the phone call had come in and cut it with water. He'd been sipping on that for the past hour.

He thought about the scientists he'd convinced to enter this desert sanctuary with him, which included Dr. Irving Gushman, Dr. Tina Martinez-O'Farrell, Dr. Verbena Beeks, and of course Al. They and others had followed him over the past few years believing that what looked to be absolute lunacy from the point of view of almost everyone else was actually on the cutting edge of possibility. They'd all put their own research on hold to help Sam obtain his dream.

He thought of Al now. Quite a few people didn't know that Al had a doctorate in Astrophyics or knew that he was a wiz at electrical engineering. Al had become his partner early on, right after StarBright. Sam took the time to think about that point in time tonight.

Sam had met Al on the StarBright project. While he worked for the contractor hired to perform the scope of work that defined StarBright and Al worked for the government overseeing the contract performance, they had become friends. Sam smiled as he recalled the circumstances of their first real meeting. It was all because of a dime, a ten cent piece. Al had trouble with alcohol back in those days. Sam had walked in on the drunken Captain, ready to do battle with the vending machine over a lost dime.

At first Sam had thought to walk away, not wanting to get involved. He was fairly new on the project and he felt perhaps it was not his place to tell a man at least twenty years his senior that his actions were not reasonable or logical. Yet, seeing this man ready to attack the vending machine for a lost dime had hit Sam in some way which caused him to reconsider. Call it a gut feeling, but somehow he knew he had to do something to help this man. Sam knew without question that it had been the best decision of his life.

After he'd helped Al dry out and get away from the bottle, they had become relatively good friends. Due to potential conflict of interests between acting as a contractor and the interactions with the government representative overseeing their performance, they didn't get a chance to become too close during the StarBright years, but that had changed when the project had come to an end.

Sam thought back to what Al had told him during one of their late night chats. Al had decided that he'd had enough of playing the military game. After his own friends had all but turned their back on him when he'd been at his lowest point, he decided to take retirement. Al had told him it was a source of amazement to Al that a kid who had spent most of his adult life obtaining degree after degree and whose upbringing had been on a farm, a dairy one to boot, had been the one to see through the ugly shell that Al had built around himself. Even Al had seen little value in the man he had become, sure that finally his life had caught up to him and he would end it on the street without friend or family.

Al told him that he'd noticed the younger man appear in the doorway of the cafeteria and had not been surprised when Sam had seen the confrontation, wide eyed only to turn around a moment later. What had surprised Al was the almost immediate reversal of direction. Al had never understood why Sam had turned around that night and had stepped between him and the vending machine.

Al had initially tried to attack Sam as well, swinging the hammer at the interfering man's head. Sam had caught his wrist and held it, not allowing Al to swing it again. After a few moments, Sam's strength had won out against the very drunken rage that was Al's only action. When the alcohol had finally caught up with Al, he had dropped the hammer and caved in and Sam had been there to hold him. Sam had been there afterwards too, doing everything he could to save the soul and career of a man he'd barely met.

Al had once told Sam that he owed his life to the young physicist. Sam had told him that he was glad that he taken those actions and Al didn't owe him a damn thing. Still, sometimes Sam felt it was God, fate, or some other entity that had brought them together. He certainly couldn't explain why he'd changed his mind and turned back that night.

After StarBright, Sam had decided to pursue a dream he'd had since childhood. He'd always felt it was possible to travel in time. He'd written out equations since he was a child, always tweaking them as he learned more about the world in which he lived. It was his dream and he knew that somehow, someday he was going to make it a reality. When Al had told him he was leaving the military, Al had asked him to work for him as a contracting expert. Sam knew that was one area he didn't have the expertise to be effective. Al had said he'd give it a shot. One day, Sam had been having some problems with a set of equations and had put them down on the table and gone off to get some tea. He'd had a headache and figured that tea and a moment to stretch out the kinks in his back might help to refresh him enough to see the solution to the corner he'd painted himself into.

When he'd come back into the room, he was surprised to see Al, propped up on the sofa and reading his equations. At first Sam had thought that Al was at best glancing through them. But when Al casually looked up and told him "You've divided by zero on one of your equations," Sam had been floored.

"You understand what I've written?"

"Well, not all of it. However, I get the general idea. This is good work."

"Excuse me for asking, but how does an Admiral in the Navy understand the intricacies of advanced quantum physics?"

"Oh, I have a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. I went back to school when I got back from Vietnam. There didn't seem to be much of a need for older pilots as the war effort disappeared, and I was told I'd be a great candidate for the space program if I got the degree. Space sounded like a kick in the butt, so I went to MIT and got the degree.

"You're a graduate of MIT? So am I."

"I know, Sam. Several times over if I'm correct."

"Yeah." Sam paused. "So where did I divide by zero?"

The two men had spent the rest of the night working on the equations. Once Sam corrected his error, which Al had accurately deduced, problems started to solve themselves in Sam's mind. After that evening, Sam had asked Al to become a full partner with him. He'd never regretted the decision.

The two men had been almost inseparable since StarBright ended in May of 1987. Sam had even asked Al to be the best man at his wedding, even though it didn't go as planned. Sam thought about that day ruefully. Still, perhaps it was for the best. He didn't need to consider Donna in his decisions tonight.

It was now May of 1995, eight years later. During those years the two men had built the project from architectural drawings and environmental studies to creating the complex with all its myriad systems, not the least of which was Ziggy, as Al had christened the parallel hybrid computer. Now, he wasn't sure what he should do. Part of him told him he should wait until Al returned. Part of him was convinced that if he didn't do something right this minute, he'd lose it all. He decided to ask the computer he'd built to figure the odds. He'd build the complex so he could access the computer anywhere he might be.

"Ziggy?"

"Yes, Dr. Beckett." The male voice which Sam had programmed the computer with seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

"What are the odds that this project has a chance to continue if the government wishes to cancel it?"

"I estimate that if you are required to obtain private funding the odds are less then 15 percent for the continuation of the project."

"That low?"

"Yes. Private funding of basic research, which is what this project would be considered is very seldom pursued unless there is a direct and near term benefit for the funding party. It is unlikely you could convince enough people to produce the funding necessary to mount even one leap into the past."

"Hmmmm. Okay. What is the probability I can convince the government to continue funding this until I can verify and validate the retrieval system is working."

"I would estimate that possibility at less then four percent."

Sam was shocked to hear the low probabilities. He had to do something. Taking the final sip of the scotch, he headed out to the operations center of the project. He noted that Dr. Gushman was still in the room. "Hey, Gooshie, it's a little late for you to be here, isn't it?"

"Ahhhh. Sam. I didn't know you were still up. I wanted to work on the programming a bit tonight. It was quiet and I thought…"

"It's a Saturday night. You've got to have something better to do then work on the programming." Sam was doing his best to be nonchalant about the entire conversation.

"Not really." Gooshie's breath was enough to almost knock Sam over, but he held his ground.

"Well, if nothing else, watch a movie. Pop some popcorn. That what I do to relax."

"I don't know…." The computer programmer didn't seem to want to leave. Sam felt he should give the programmer a little more incentive.

"Gooshie, I'm telling you, get out of here. I don't want you to burn yourself out."

"I…"

"Hey, who's in charge around here?" Sam was smiling but he was making it clear he expected the programmer to get the heck out of Dodge.

"Fine, Sam. If you insist."

"I do."

Gooshie nodded. "All right. I suppose I could catch up on some of the journals I've missed the last few months."

"Whatever floats your boat, Gooshie. You just need to go relax. Good night."

"Good night, Sam." The man put the clipboard he was working off of on the table. He hung up his lab coat and headed out the door.

Once he was gone, Sam set to work. He first obtained one of the Fermi suits he'd created and put it on. The skin tight outfit covered most of his body, albeit in such a fashion that it didn't leave a great deal to the imagination as to what was underneath of the white fabric. He next went over to the main console and started typing code. 

"What are you doing, Dr. Beckett." The male voice seemed louder here. This was where the computers main consciousness resided. Sam wondered if perhaps it felt more comfortable here. He'd built the artificial intelligence to handle the multiple variables and factors that would arise in time travel.

"Nothing you need to worry about, Ziggy." Sam barely stopped his coding to acknowledge the computer.

"I do not worry."

"Okay, nothing you need to be concerned about then." Sam continued to type.

"If I am to extrapolate from the instructions you are inputting into my computer core, my observation is that you are planning to leap."

"Why would you say that, Ziggy?"

"Because your instructions are bringing the accelerator and the radium ring online. Both of those only need to be online if you are planning to leap."

"I'm only testing some parameters." Sam was almost finished. Another few minutes and the proper instructions would be in place.

"My monitoring of your life signs indicates a rise in both blood pressure and respiration. In addition, you are exhibiting signs of stress."

The accelerator hummed to life. Sam noted that the radium ring would reach full capacity in about five minutes. He didn't have much more time. "I'm just going to check on the internal workings of the complex."

Ziggy wasn't sure but he had read about duplicity in humans. He felt that perhaps his creator was not being fully honest with him. He noted that Dr. Gushman had not yet reached his car. He contacted the man before he left the complex and asked him to return to the operations area quickly.

Sam finished his coding and headed into the accelerator.

"You don't need to do this, Dr. Beckett."

"You told me what my odds were, Ziggy. I don't have any choice. They're not going to stop me. I'm not going to let my dream die." Sam took his place on the circle in the accelerator. He was beginning to feel the effects of the acceleration.

He heard Gooshie's voice come onto the speaker. "Sam, you need to leave the accelerator now. Ziggy indicates that you should not leap at this time."

Sam didn't answer. He continued to allow the euphoric feelings to overtake him. He felt his hands rising in and he began to smile. One way or the other, the government would have their answer tonight. Either his theories were sound, which he knew in his soul was the truth, or they weren't and it was likely he would not survive this evening. He hoped Al would understand.

XoXoXoXoXoXoX

Dr. Gushman didn't know what else to do. He decided to try to reach Al. After all, he was Sam's partner. Certainly he would have an answer.

"Control!" Gooshie used the codeword to contact the Admiral.

"What's happening, Gooshie?" Al's voice was calm but questioning.

Gooshie was beside himself. "He's leaping! Ziggy said no but Sam's leaping!

"He can't leap, we're not ready."

"Tell Sam that!"

"Put him on."

"I can't. He's in the accelerator. Al...Al, what do I do?"

"Nothing, any interference could kill him. I'll be there in two minutes." Gooshie heard the Admiral tell someone in his car, "Hang on beautiful."

A moment later, Dr. Sam Beckett had left 1995. No one was sure when or if he would return.

FINIS


End file.
